How to show or hide formatting marks in Word?
There are many formatting marks in Word document, such as tab characters, spaces, paragraph marks, hidden text, optional hyphens, object anchors, optional breaks and so on. Some of them are shown and some of them are hidden by default. Follow this tutorial to learn how to show or hide them in Word.
Show or hide formatting marks in Word with Word Options
Show or hide formatting marks in Word with Kutools
Recommended Productivity Tools for Word
Kutools for Word: Integrating AI 🤖, over 100 advanced features save 50% of your document handling time.Free Download
Office Tab: Introduces the browser-like tabs to Word (and other Office tools), simplifying multi-document navigation.Free Download
Show or hide formatting marks in Word
- Click File > Options.
- Click Display. In the Always show these formatting marks on the screen section, check the options to show specific formatting marks in the document, or check Show all formatting marks to display all of them.
Note: Alternatively, to show or hide all formatting marks, you can click 
under the Home tab, or press the shortcut Ctrl + * to toggle them.
Show or hide formatting marks in Word with Kutools
Using Kutools for Word, you can easily manage formatting marks and document display settings in one place, making it more convenient than manually adjusting Word's settings.
- Apply the utility by clicking Kutools Plus > Display Settings.
- In the Formatting Marks section of the Display Settings dialog, check the formatting marks you want to show or uncheck to hide them.
For more information about the Display Settings feature, please visit: showing formatting marks in Word.
Related articles:
- Show or hide picture placeholders in Word
- Show or hide spaces in Word
- Display or hide field codes in Word document
- Show document content (text animation, drawings and text boxes) in Word
Best Office Productivity Tools
Kutools for Word - Elevate Your Word Experience with Over 100 Remarkable Features!
🤖 Kutools AI Features: AI Assistant / Real-Time Assistant / Super Polish (Preserve Format) / Super Translate (Preserve Format) / AI Redaction / AI Proofread...
📘 Document Mastery: Split Pages / Merge Documents / Export Selection in Various Formats (PDF/TXT/DOC/HTML...) / Batch Convert to PDF...
✏ Contents Editing: Batch Find and Replace across Multiple Files / Resize All Pictures / Transpose Table Rows and Columns / Convert Table to Text...
🧹 Effortless Clean: Sweap away Extra Spaces / Section Breaks / Text Boxes / Hyperlinks / For more removing tools, head to the Remove group...
➕ Creative Inserts: Insert Thousand Separators / Check Boxes / Radio Buttons / QR Code / Barcode / Multiple Pictures / Discover more in the Insert group...
🔍 Precision Selections: Pinpoint Specific Pages / Tables / Shapes / Heading Paragraphs / Enhance navigation with more Select features...
⭐ Star Enhancements: Navigate to Any Location / Auto-Insert Repetitive Text / Toggle Between Document Windows / 11 Conversion Tools...
🌍 Supports 40+ Languages: Use Kutools in your preferred language – supports English, Spanish, German, French, Chinese, and 40+ others!
✨ Kutools for Office – One Installation, Five Powerful Tools!
Includes Office Tab Pro · Kutools for Excel · Kutools for Outlook · Kutools for Word · Kutools for PowerPoint
📦 Get all 5 tools in one suite | 🔗 Seamless integration with Microsoft Office | ⚡ Save time and boost productivity instantly
Best Office Productivity Tools
Kutools for Word - 100+ Tools for Word
- 🤖 Kutools AI Features: AI Assistant / Real-Time Assistant / Super Polish / Super Translate / AI Redaction / AI Proofread
- 📘 Document Mastery: Split Pages / Merge Documents / Batch Convert to PDF
- ✏ Contents Editing: Batch Find and Replace / Resize All Pictures
- 🧹 Effortless Clean: Remove Extra Spaces / Remove Section Breaks
- ➕ Creative Inserts: Insert Thousand Separators / Insert Check Boxes / Create QR Codes
- 🌍 Supports 40+ Languages: Kutools speaks your language – 40+ languages supported!